Abstract
This essay reports on the survey findings of a study examining the teaching and evaluation strategies used by teachers in the classroom. The study focussed on 304 French and English schools in Ontario representing both urban and rural Ontario school boards. The essay begins with a review of the literature and highlights key points noted by educational theorists and practitioners regarding the importance and challenges of literacy education. We then move to discuss our discursive framework with regards to employing cognitive and social constructivism as theoretical lenses. Survey responses are presented under the broader categories of teaching and pedagogical practice and evaluation of teaching strategies. In analyzing the survey results, we highlight the following as being effective in the promotion of critical literacy: a teacher’s own knowledge; pedagogical skills and approaches; the level of school and off-school/local knowledge of students; the affirmation of the identity, culture and history of learners, as well as one’s knowledge of the local community.
Highlights
It is increasingly being recognized that the cultural responses students learn at home, in terms of cognition, emotion, and behaviour, play a crucial—and often conflicting—role in the way they negotiate the expectations of school literacies
Literacy involves working with knowledge of students and teachers, and the academic and social knowledge that is prevalent in a given school environment
Competency is not about reading and writing. It is about understanding one’s social environment, and the socio-political cultural milieus in which education takes place. The implication of this is that any ‘measurement’ tools educators use to assess literacy must be developed in concert with local communities, parents and students who are partners in the task of ensuring success for diverse learners
Summary
It is increasingly being recognized that the cultural responses students learn at home, in terms of cognition, emotion, and behaviour, play a crucial—and often conflicting—role in the way they negotiate the expectations of school literacies. These reports offer teaching and learning strategies that will enable teachers to better meet students’ needs in terms of numeracy and literacy in Ontario’s Anglophone and Francophone schools They fully focus on the specific issues that surround students of an ethnocultural minority. Schools must offer a learning environment that supports students’ personal experiences while taking into consideration their cultural backgrounds This environment will afford students the opportunity to implicate themselves in significant activities that have a link to a world outside of the classroom (National Research Council & Institute of Medicine, 2004). Depending on whether or not the knowledge constructing activity is of an individual or collective nature, these fundamental principles will be applied in different ways (Bruner, 1985; De Vries et Kohlberg, 1990; Tudge & Rogoff, 1989) These writings advocate the value of individual and internal reality (cognitive constructivism) while emphasizing the importance of knowledge and understanding stemming from social encounters (social constructivism). The processes of evaluation should include an examination of the curriculum, teaching strategies, and educational resources
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